Chat thread - come chat, rant, or celebrate, here!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

With thanks to the lovely timetosmile - here's the new and rejuvenated Chat Thread.

Space to yak on, rant, post any of the good and bad stuff ... just basically any chat that you don't feel fits into a specific post. With a side order of reclaiming the word 'gossip'.

[doyouwantfrieswiththat]

I thought the implication was that women just weren't applying in the first place. Was I wrong? I admit to this myself, I have ignored ads which male friends have encouraged me to apply for because I don't tick all the boxes whereas their attitude was, 'you can do that job'.

All jobs since Uni have been jobs where I was placed by a temping agency and offered a permanent contract within the first few weeks. I wouldn't have applied for them myself but the agency managed to 'sell' my skills to give me a chance to prove them. I am rubbish at selling myself. And I realise even that last sentence is very telling.

[alexpolismum]

I just want to rant about the casual misogyny on television. Feel free to ignore!

I was watching a programme on gardening and cultivating your own vegetables. It talked about the best times to plant, which plants in which season, types of soil, how to care for your seedlings...

Very little scope for misogyny, you might think. Well, so did I, and I was enjoying it. Until, for no apparent reason, a woman walked into the grubby greenhouse where the male presenter in his overalls, wellies and gardening gloves was kneeling in the soil. She was (of course!) dressed in ridiculously high heels, just the thing you might put on to go in a greenhouse , stockings and suspenders and a lab coat (why??), carefully unbuttoned to show off her breasts. Just why? She came in and asked why her (careful pause) flowers were wilting. Answer: because she had to keep them moist.

Cue strategic shots of her pouting and bending over various plants in the greenhouse, before declaring "Well, what do I know, anyway!" and strutting off. The presenter then went on to talk about the best time to harvest root vegetables!

What was the point of that?? It was about growing vegetables, for goodness sake! It spoiled the whole programme for me!

[doyouwantfrieswiththat]

Alex that's ridiculous, what programme was it? Was it a serious gardening programme?

[alexpolismum]

Well, I thought it WAS a serious gardening programme! Up to that point, it had talked about various types of vegetables, the best time of year to plant them, the best types of soil for each one, all that sort of thing. It was informative, thorough, very good.

It was on Greek television.

[SpeverendRooner]

Doyou - I think the implication is that they apply later. Hence they should be more experienced and should have more success when they do apply. Or so it seems to me. But I'm not sure I'm understanding bigkidsdidit correctly.

I don't really want to go into why, but its more than idle curiosity on my part. I'd like to understand - happy to be pointed at references if that's easier.

[doyouwantfrieswiththat]

Alex I thought it didn't sound like Gardener's World, the most irrelevant bits of that are shots of Monty Don's dog, which tbf is very lovely.

Speverend fair enough

[bigkidsdidit]

Sorry - in not being clear. It's not a competition, so if 10 people apply and all are judged to have hit enough of the criteria all will be promoted. The problem is that until now just how many you needed to hit was not at all clear. So all the women and all tr men might be promoted, but the women would be a bit older.

We are changing this - trying to make promotion criteria much more transparent.

[alexpolismum]

Still feeling cross today! It spoilt what was up until that point an interesting, informative programme.

I have no objection to the woman being on the programme, obviously, but why like that? Why not have her dressed in normal gardening attire, discussing the seedlings with the presenter? They could have got her to raise some of the typical questions viewers ask, if they didn't want her to present it!

They were going to talk about planting vegetables in tubs on balconies in the next programme, something I'm interested in, as I only have a balcony, not a garden, but I'm not sure I want to watch it now, I'm so annoyed!

[bigkidsdidit]

Btw I'm not denying discrimination as well as women not putting themselves forward _ the fact noone is very sure of the process means the old boys network has a chance to kick in

[alexpolismum]

doyouwantfries I wouldn't mind shots of a dog! I quite like dogs! And people don't tend to dress them up in high heels, suspenders and heavy make up!

[doyouwantfrieswiththat]

monty don's dog

[alexpolismum]

that is indeed a lovely dog !

Even the cartoons are annoying me today. The television is staying off. I've got the children looking at books and playing with lego. Dh is making me a cuppa kneading some pizza dough. He makes great pizza bases and it horrifies MIL that I've got him working in the kitchen. Cheers me up no end. I am calming down.

[AbigailAdams]

I know about Athena Swann bigkids we have just got into it at our place. I went to a presentation on it just before Xmas. It looks really good an in depth too.

Rant about Ice Age 1. Mother and baby jump in river to escape sabre-toothed tiger. No more mention of mother. She is just erased. No acknowledgment of death or anything. It appears it was a man's world even then!

[TheDoctrineOfSciAndNatureClub]

Of the 25 names being investigated for the Barclays LIBOR scandal, two are women. I just felt I wanted to note this somewhere.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I didn't know that doctrine. Interesting.

I admit, I came on here to rant. I am currently being mansplained about teaching feminism at university. By someone who, if I remember rightly, barely completed his degree and is in a totally different subject area from me.



Grrrr!

[alexpolismum]

Rant away, LRD, it does you good!

[TheDoctrineOfSciAndNatureClub]

Grr with you, LRD!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Thank you!

It is funny how much it helps to get it out there, isn't it? This is why I think all the silly comments about women 'bitching' are off the mark.

[TerrariaMum]

Ah, but if the misogynist types had to contend with the fact that women also have interesting discussions and whinge and laugh and run the full gamut of conversation, then they would have to acknowledge that women are human which might mean them having to change their behaviour.

On that note, is misogyny rooted in a fear of biological femaleness? I'm just pondering.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Oh, good point, we can't expect them to be thinking we're human!

But yes ... that's a really interesting question. I wonder. I do think there's a particular kind of misogyny that has a lot to do with a sort of squeamish hated of women's bodies. But I don't know if that's the same thing.

[TheDoctrineOfSciAndNatureClub]

Tribute to Hillary Clinton, who is stepping down, on PM (radio 4) right now. Very interesting.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Thanks, I'll go listen ...

[alexpolismum]

A nice little anecdote from my dd.

She was doing one of those exercises where you have to match up words. It was in Greek, but it was basicly like this: Small + little, big + large, that sort of thing. At the end, I was teasing her and said "So, dd, what goes with "girl" then?"
"clever!" she replied promptly

[AbigailAdams]

I love Hillary Clinton. I'll see if it is on iPlayer.

Loving that anecdote alexpolismum! I bet it made you all warm and fuzzy inside!

[TheDoctrineOfSciAndNatureClub]

I was doing party bags for DS2 last night and had to make a conscious effort not to "match" the pink bookmarks from the assorted bookmarks with the Upsy Daisy books from the ITNG sets I was splitting up.

I am at myself. I have sealed all the bags to stop myself from checking which is which when I give them out.

DS2 is 3.